Konark Dance & Music Festival, Feb 2010

The Konark Dance and Music Festival has been organized every year since 1986 and celebrated its silver jubilee this year with the festival held at Konark, Orissa, from February 19 to 23 2010.

Padmashree Awardee Guru Gangadhar Pradhan, is the founder & director of Konark Natya Mandap situated at Arka Vihar, Konark. This captivating festival attempts to display the best of traditional and classical dances of India and has been a pride and dream for various performing artists as the festival has been catering to discerning audiences at the lovely location near the Konark Sun Temple which is a famed World Heritage Site of India. The festival has brought lot of pride to Orissa and has put Konark on the World cultural map and is regarded as one of the leading festivals in India and supports as well as embraces art forms and artists from India and across the globe. Till date more than 7,000 performing artists had availed the opportunity to participate in this highly awaited annual international event in Orissa.

Classical dance and music apart, the festival also features Chhow, Gotipua and Kalari Payattu dances besides Orissa’s traditional theatre. The leading exponents and dance enthusiasts of almost all main classical dance forms of India--including Odissi, Bharatanatyam, Manipuri, Kathakali, and Chao--take part in the five-day classical dance carnival. Take a look at: http://konarkfestival.com/ and http://www.konarknatyamandap.org/

The Konark Dance & Music Festival held from February, 19th to 23rd, 2010 was organized by Konark Natya Mandap. For more details see http://www.konarknatyamandap.org/

The festival takes place in an open-air auditorium and enlivens the spirit of the sculptures of Konark temple which is just a short distance away. The festival brings in the spirit of merry to all the onlookers. The music reverberates and combined with the sounds of the ankle bells of the dancers enthralls the audiences. The elegant steps and expressions of the dancers makes the event so captivating that no one can ever forget it.